Friday, April 30 2021

Dear Journal,

Happy Friday, everyone! Hope you are all getting up to something fun this weekend to usher in the beautiful Spring weekend. Around here, good news is dropping all over the place. Thanks to a big draft turnout, the Bears just might not suck this year. The biergarten by our house announced that they'll now be allowing dogs. Just in time for Minnie's ear tape to come off - her ear's are standing tall and proud.

Sip. I'm sorry didn't get the entry out this morning. The celebratory Friday morning journal entry is one of my favorites. Today and yesterday have been pretty much dominated by vaccine symptoms. I got my shot on Thursday. In the morning I had a 1-on-1 and a coffee meet and greet with a new hire. Then I ducked out to hit the road, headed to everyone's favorite Racine mall for my second COVID dose. I don't mean to brag, but I'm kind of a pro by now at navigating the Regency mall. It's got everything - the Auntie Anne's pretzel, Lids, and... that's pretty much it.

The shot was pretty uneventful. It was much less fascinating the second time around. Stand in line, scan your QR code, sign your name, sit in a chair, get the poke, and sit in a different chair for fifteen minutes to make sure you don't have any adverse effects. My eyes wandered around the big open room while I waited for my time to leave. And then it was done. I grabbed a Popeye's chicken sandwich on the way out and hit the road again.

I'll be honest, after a week crammed with so many meetings, it was a real treat to shut off my brain and go for a long drive. Just some music, podcasts, and a long straight road through Wisconsin. It was so relaxing that I almost forgot that I had more work to do when I got home.

I arrived home with only five minutes to spare before my next run of afternoon meetings. I was kind of impressed with how well I timed things.

By the time my work day ended, my arm started to feel sore and the rest of my body was feeling achy. "We're ordering out," I announced. That was a no brainer - there was a Hawks game on. I was already behind on dishes. And I had spent the entire day in the car and sitting in meetings. It was time to rest up.

We put the kids to bed, and as the night waned on, the symptoms started to really kick in. The soreness in my arm began to radiate through the rest of my body, and a nagging migraine began to form. The pain worsened as I tried to sleep it off. It felt like I was sleeping, tossing, and waking up in forty five minute increments. 3 AM... 4 AM... 5 AM... 6 AM.

At 9, I made my way into the hallway to get a drink of water. Rodney was waiting at the door asking to come out.

"Dada, I come out now? I had a scary dream this time," he said.

"Oh I'm sorry dude," I said, shuffling over to him weakly. "What was your dream about.

Rodney followed me into our bedroom as he explained. "There was a HORSE and a DEER making a house. And we were trying to find the ghost."

"Oh yeah?" I asked, intrigued. "Go on."

"And then we found the ghost," continued Rodney. "The ghost was playing the piano."

"He was playing the piano? That sounds kind of silly. What did it sound like?" I asked.

"It sounded like... BUM, BUM, BUM," he hummed.

The side effects continued to rage for the whole day. I felt a bit like a ghost myself just lumbering around the house to get water in between naps. The migraine was probably the worst of it. It was the kind that made you sensitive to noise and light. While I tried to nap things off, the rest of the family had a nice fruit lunch. Minnie got to try watermelon for the first time.

Ziggy had the lion's share of the fruit. While we were cleaning up from lunch, she stealthily ate a whole bowl of sliced cantaloupe. She'd spend the afternoon lazing around in the kitchen, dazed from all the delicious fruit in her stomach.

While waiting for my laundry to finish in the drier, I drifted off for one more nap. That's when all the symptoms magically disappeared. The migraine vanished. The soreness dissipated. It's a strange thing to go from feeling terrible to totally normal in about an hour.

We took the boys to the Ale Asylum for dinner. We grabbed an outdoor seat and helped ourselves to cheese curds and fish fry. Off in the corner, Rodney was entertaining a group of waiters who were all standing in a six foot circle around him while he explained the k'nex creation he brought. It was a power pack that spun a grey axel with a little snowflake like trinket at the end. "It's for my real spider. I'm four. It's my birthday soon. I'm having a bug party." They nodded along as he strung together non sequitur thoughts.

It was a good day today. The COVID vaccine was tough to get through. It makes me grateful that I never actually caught COVID. If the vaccine did this much of a number of me, I don't even want to think about how sick and whiny the real thing would have made me.

Thanks for stopping by today. Happy Friday, everyone.